During his pregame news conference, Bochy acknowledged the disappointment in having this season end without a playoff berth:

“It’s sad, to be honest,” Bochy said, “that this is our last game. It’s not the way we wanted the season to end. We’re all disappointed we’re not going farther, especially with what happened last year.

“But, it is our last game. We’re going to come out here and give it our best to try to win this ballgame. After today’s game, we’ll get back to work and start getting ready for spring training.”

He was asked if, in hindsight, it was more surprising that the Giants fell off the pace in August and early September or that they were able to stay in first place in June and July after losing Buster Posey and Freddy Sanchez:

“I hate to be on the fence here, ” Bochy said, “but a little bit of both. Losing those key players, how well we kept playing initially and stayed in first place. But then when we tripped there in August, we could look back and say, ‘Well, this happened. This happened,’ but the bottom line is we just didn’t play as well as we needed to do. That’s surprising, too, (to) all of us, the fact that we fell back and dug ourselves too deep a hole to come out of. But, it is baseball and as you see here in September, teams that go through their struggles. And, we certainly went through one there.

“And to Arizona’s credit, they kept winning. And so, they did it in the right way. It’s not like they backed into it. They kept winning and played very well. You don’t feel as bad when that happens. If they wouldn’t have played so well and we kept stumbling, then you do feel even worse.”